Kolukkumalai – World’s Highest Tea Plantation – Jeep Trekking

World’s Highest Tea Plantation – Kolukkumalai – Jeep Trekking The famous saying “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destination” is extremely the apt saying for the travel to Kolukkumalai. Being a passion photographer and travel enthusiast, I used to visit different places but this one turned out to be real adventurous and thrilling off-road experience for me in my entire life. Geographical Facts Kolukkumalai is home to the World’s highest tea plantation owned by Harrisons Malayalam Ltd at an elevation of 7000ft above sea level. Due to this high altitude, the tea grown here has superb and special taste than any other places in the world. It is located at Theni district of Tamil Nadu and is approachable via Suryanelli road. Also Its very near to famous hill station Munnar ( approx 32kms ). You can always plan a visit here if you are visiting Munnar, but not recommended for kids & elders due to the difficult and dangerous off-road jeep journey. There is no immediate medical facility available at top and you have to travel whole way down for any emergency situation if occurs. I always prefer to travel with my family but for this particular trip I decided to go with my friends. Am just telling as a precaution but many families also visit the place often for seeing the beautiful and breath taking sceneries. Theni railway station is 66kms and Kochi airport is 133kms away from this place. Another point of interest was that we can see Tamil Nadu on one side and Kerala on other side from top view point. The Journey We reached Suryanelli from Munnar by 11 am and our driver Antony was waiting for us with his legendary Jeep ( I become a big fan of Jeep after this trip ). Kolukkumalai is accessible only by Jeep or else you have to trek which I don’t recommend for amateurs. I was fully packed with cameras and necessary accessories. Antony informed that upward drive is 10kms but will take about one and half hours and downside 2 hours due to bumpy road. We started our journey and first stop was at Harrison Gate for taking the pass. It is strictly a private property and you will need to get pass for the entry to the plantation. I started shooting the beautiful tea gardens around us on the way up to the hill and noticed that road is gradually becoming narrower and finally became more steep and bumpy after a few minutes of journey. We started climbing inch by inch. Road was made full of rocks of different sizes and shapes. After sometimes jeep started to move up and down and we were jumping like in a trampoline. I was clinging harder on the side bar as jeep was shaking heavily and I couldn’t even locate my arms and legs. The condition of my friends siting at the backseat of the jeep was even worse. After 10 minutes of this concrete-mixer trip I asked Antony how long more and he replied 1 hour. We continued to climb more distance slowly and sceneries started to change. The scenic beauty of the refreshing tea garden and cool breeze started to excite us. After half an hour Antony felt some sympathy for us and stopped his monster at some middle point for 10 minutes break and I could continue my photo-shoot. As he stopped the jeep, we took 2 minutes to gain our conscious and slowly came out of the jeep to see whether our arms and legs are in position. We were in middle of plantation and got some magnificent view and really enjoyed the beauty of that place. I have been to many tea plantations but have never seen a view like this. We managed to take few pictures and again started our journey. There was tea planted in 1902 also (more than One Hundred years before!!). The road becomes more and more bumpier as we climb up. There were sharp turns and hair pins when nearing the hill top. Antony started to use reverse gear also to turn and climb hair pins. The views only get better and better as we slowly progressed to top. At this point of time, we felt that Jeep is one of the most important inventions of mankind. At last we reached top and all our efforts and difficulties were rewarded 10 times higher with the much waited scenic view. Nowhere else in the world you can see such mighty 1000 acres plantation along with beautiful mountains touching the sky. We saw clouds floating below our eye level and that enchanting view really filled our eyes and heart. Cool and fresh breeze fondled us and we spent nearly one hour at top enjoying one of the most beautiful view of life time. Well..I don’t want to mention about the return 2 hour bumpy ride as you can guess how it was. Travel video link is given below. Try Kolukkumalai once in life time, if you are looking for a daring and adventurous trip. Not much recommended for kids. I am available at below contact for any additional information Email : mukeshnair123@gmail.com